Floral Display Window Box Card

Another special birthday for another special lady, my husband's mum and my love of the Flower Patch set continued. I have had a previous 3D project I made with the Hardwood background stamp sitting in my craft room since I made it. If you have been following a while then you may remember that I made a little wooden window box using the Hardwood stamp which I then filled with flowers. You can see the original post here. It was the inspiration for this card as I loved the little wooden box and re-used the idea for the base of my flowers. It worked really well as the layered card gave this rather large card the stability it needed to stand confidently in pride of place.

If you would like to give this a try yourself, I stamped my Hardwood background onto Baked Brown Sugar (retired) card, but you could easily use some current tone of card from from the Neutrals Collection. I then cut my strips, picking out any of the design with knots of wood to make it a bit interesting. Next came some sponge daubing with the little sponge daubers from SU. Sponging the edges of the strips makes such a different to giving it a more authentic wood look. I also ran the sponges lightly across the wood design too for added effect.

The little grass is made with the fringe scissors. Great for adding texture and perfect for grass-effects. I am keeping these away from little hands as I am sure they are going to find their way into the kiddicraft box otherwise and there will be fringed edges everywhere!!

You must know by now from my previous posts the colour combinations on this one as I have found the combo that worked for me and this card was a continuation of the same colour theme. I layered my flowers up, some stuck with dimensional foam pads, on the card front and then carefully trimmed round the shape once done to give my card front the layered stacked effect. 

The Chalk Talk sentiment is retired unfortunately, but the die set is still in the current catalogue for the label shape. My sentiment was embossed in white onto black card, but there are now fabulous chalk marker pens chalk effect if you wanted to free-hand (yes I know, without stamps!??!). Otherwise there are other stamp sets in the current catalogue which co-ordinate with the chalk talk dies.

This card was a work of love so the back had the wooden window box finish on it too. The flowers look lovely stamped inside to finish it off too. You just cannot have too many flowers. I am starting to feel like the Summer sun is really going to start too with all these sunny colours!

I'll be back soon with something less flowery I think..........

Suzanne
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There is a big long list here of products I used. Where there were retired items I have substituted for suggested alternatives (such as the Soft Suede card/colour instead of the retired Baked Brown Sugar).The list is longer as I have listed colours individually, but some belong to the same colour family so if you have the collection already you will have them already. The Chalk Talk set is retired so remember to look for something to put into your label if you choose to use the dies.

Hardwood Wood-Mount Background Stamp	Soft Suede A4 Cardstock	Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad	Neutrals Stampin' Write Markers	Melon Mambo Classic Stampin' Pad
Rose Red Classic Stampin' Pad	Rose Red A4 Cardstock	Whisper White A4 Cardstock	Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad	Bermuda Bay A4 Cardstock
Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Pad	Daffodil Delight A4 Cardstock	Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder	Pear Pizzazz A4 Cardstock	Pear Pizzazz Classic Stampin' Pad
Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad	Fringe Scissors	Basic Black A4 Cardstock	White Stampin' Emboss Powder	Chalk Talk Framelits Dies
Sponge Daubers	Bermuda Bay Sequin Trim	Rhinestone Basic Jewels	Flower Patch Photopolymer Bundle

Floral Displays with the Spiral Flower Die

If the weather holds off I hope to be outside planting my own spring displays in the garden, but for now I thought I would share my recent project which I have been working on.  A while back I saw these cute little pepper pots in the local budget store and I could not believe what a close match they were to the Stampin' Up! colours.  You can just see the shaped tops peeping out of the top of the display in the photo.  I had a thought straight away that I could make flowers with the Spiral Flower Die and then attach them to garden wire to stand them through the holes in the pot lids.

Before I started my project though, I found a picture from Erica Cerwin on Pinterest with something very similiar.  Great minds think alike!  Erica had made a crate using the Hardwood stamp and put flowers in hers in bunches of yellow with long grass/leaves.  So once I saw the crate idea I knew I could make a little flower trough of my own to sit my pots into.

I started with a basic rectangular open box which I added an extra layer of card to so that it had more stability.  I then added my layer of grass which was using the Gumball Green from the In Colours 2012-2014. The grass was cut using the Fringe Scissors from the Spring/Summer catalogue. Finally I stamped the hardwood stamp onto Baked Brown Sugar and cut this into strips 1.5cm wide.  I sponged colour round the edges of the strips and then wrapped them round the box in a wooden crate style.

My flowers were in the Crisp Cantaloupe, Wild Wasabi and Daffodil Delight colours.  I also used the Flower Punch to add a layer of Gumball Green for a leave base to the flowers.  Each of the flowers was made using one and a half of the Spiral Flower Die shapes.  I cut two die pieces and then cut the second piece in two.  I wrapped the complete piece and then added the second half piece into the flower before securing them together with a glue gun. I have yet to perfect my glue gun sticking so there was some extra glue strings which still need tidying a little - oops!  A little photo touch-up needed!

I finished my project with the image from the Chalk Talk stamp set embossed in white on the basic black card.  The label shape was cut with the co-ordinating dies.  I was so excited about this project and I got so carried away until it was finished, crafting late into the evening.  I was beaming with pride when I finished it and it is now sitting in pride of place in my craft room, bringing the Spring flowers inside.

Now the dies are great and the Spiral Flower is fantastic, but when you are finished cutting flowers with it there is a lovely decorative shaped piece of card left over which is just too lovely to throw away.  When I was cutting flowers using the Coastal Cabana and designer paper stack I just could not bring myself to throw the pieces away and as they were overlapping on the craft table I thought of a card layout to use them instead.

I added a flower and some Little Leaves and some further flowers using the Boho Blossom punch and the label on there is made using the Scallop Tag Topper Punch cut down to match the dimensions of the sentiment.  See the sentiment on the label there?  That is stamped using the mini stamp set in the Hip Hip Hooray Card Kit.  The kit is amazing value and the stamps can be re-used for other projects as I have done here.

Products I used for these projects were:

129379 Spiral Flower Die

133032 Hardwood

133325 Fringe Scissors

130631 Chalk Talk Stamps

129983 Chalk Talk Dies

and extras for the card:

119858 Boho Blossoms

114511 Little Leaves

133324 Scalloped Tag Topper Punch 

130136 Designer Paper Stack - In Colours 2014-2015

Stamps used for the card:

134998 Hip Hip Hooray Card Kit

All these items and more are available for order through my online store.  Just go to my blog page and click on the link to 'Shop Online With Me Now' in the top right corner or you can contact me directly. Don't forget to take a visit to see the Weekly deals continuing throughout May and also the Clearance rack deals!

Suzanne

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Remember, to book a workshop in your home or come to a class, just drop me an email at craftyinkbuds@sky.com.  You can check my Stampin' Up! home page for details of planned events. 

Owl Love Nest

A super cute punch art card from me for today with a love theme.  This would make a great card for various occasions or for a loved one just because.  I didn't make mine for any particular occasion, but I had seen various projects using the Hardwood stamp to make a fence and another project with the Owls on and it just inspired me to get my Owl Builder Punch out.

Now, we do have a little googly-eye going on! I am sure it is not beer goggles Mr Owl is wearing, but I like to think he is just all gooey-eyed for Mrs Owl instead!

I forgot how cute the owl builder punch is and with all the pieces there to make these owls, including their waistcoats, their eyes and the hearts - it was super easy to put this card together! 

Another great builder punch used for the card is the Cupcake Builder Punch - I used it on my card for the clouds. All I needed to do was punch the cupcake top in whisper white and then sponge the edges lightly to make them stand out when over-lapped in a cloud formation.

My well used, and well loved, Little Leaves sizzlit die then made the perfect bedding for the Owl couple as they nest on top of the Baked Brown Sugar fencing.  The fencing was created by the Hardwood stamp image just stamped and then cut into 1.5cm strips.

Let's not forget another great addition, the fringe grass cuttings, which I made using the Fringe Scissors. They give an extra dimension to the card and finish the bottom edge off for my woodland scene to be complete.  

The great thing about this card is I used a number of scrap pieces of designer paper and card stock to make it!  The owl pieces are all small pieces which I just punched from small scrappy bits and even the grass was cut from strips I had kept - see, it is reasonable to keep all your scraps in case they may be of use one day. Just make sure you have a builder punch to make use of them!

Now my eyes are starting to feel a little droopy like Mr Owl's so time to post and go find my own nest for the night.

Suzanne

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To place an order, book a workshop in your home or come to a class, just drop me an email at craftyinkbuds@sky.com. Remember you can now order online at anytime too.